Q&A with Elspeth Murray

Amanda Lichtenstein and Elspeth Murray 

Can you briefly tell us how you got involved with this Cultural Exchange Programme?
I think it was my involvement in a variety of different poetry teaching, mentoring and teacher training projects – including the Chicago-inspired ‘Arts Across The Curriculum’ pilot project – that made me a contender for this exchange programme.

I’m absolutely delighted to have been chosen to go and am keen to share whatever I can of the experience with the growing and committed community of writers who work in schools and other community settings here in Scotland.

What is it about poetry that you love so much?
Brevity!

No but seriously, poetry as a structured literary form of relatively few words means making very careful choices about how to say what you’re trying to say.

I love Coleridge’s definition: Poetry is the best words in the best order.

How did you become a poet?
I was lucky to have some very inspiring teachers at the Hill Primary in Blairgowrie – and had great pleasure recently in meeting up with Miss Walker from P4 and Mrs Mackenzie from P7. They – Vivienne and Janet I can now call them – clearly both love writing and shared their enthusiasm by giving us really interesting things to write about as well as freedom to pursue our own reading and writing projects. They also had the knack of dealing with the nuts and bolts of language in a way that was entertaining – making grammar and spelling fun.

I studied Social Anthropology at Edinburgh University and at the University of Pennsylvania and the whole discipline was basically about how possible or impossible it is to describe the culture and beliefs of other people. At the end of the day, poetry seemed as good a medium as any to conjure up what’s important about a certain place, scene, or interaction. I considered becoming an academic anthropologist but decided instead (or for the mean time!) to embrace poetry.

Apart from your physical similarities and love of chunky red necklaces, did you find any similarities in the way you both use poetry to inspire children?
Having Amanda as an exchange partner was a great blessing! I don’t think anyone involved in the exchange could have predicted how much we would find we had in common.

We have borrowed from each other’s toolkits of useful poems and useful exercises to get ideas and words flowing. We have similar ways of introducing poetic vocabulary and terminology into the discussion and both recognise that the creative process is somewhat mysterious. There is an element of standing aside and letting the work flow through you – whether as a facilitator or as a participant in the classroom.

What have been the highlights of your exchanges?
I had an ‘aha moment’ watching Amanda co-teaching a class at Crown Academy in Chicago. It was when she put one foot up on a chair while explaining what was going to happen next. I don’t think she realised she was doing it. It’s not something that I would see myself doing.

But somehow it was a gesture that said: ‘it’s OK to be yourself’. And again, this is something that applies not only to the teaching artist but to those we are working with. Drop the pretence and don’t copy your neighbour!http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/1/artsinscotland/education/features/artseducationinchicago.aspx

I have been lucky enough to see you both do sessions with adults while you were in Edinburgh, do you have a favourite poetry-exercise that you like to use?
Non-stop or stream-of-consciousness writing can be a great launchpad to discover themes that are important to write about further. I learned from Amanda (while we were at Grangemouth High School) a handy add-on to the timed writing exercise.

Before putting pen to paper, non-stop talking to yourself about your starting idea, word, or phrase was a fun, liberating and noisy way of gearing up for some highly charged, focused writing time. Two minutes walking and talking, ten minutes sitting and writing – and a clutch of surprising new pieces of writing emerged.

http://stanzabreak.blogspot.com/ (has the Grangemouth session at the top currently)

What was Chicago like and did you have an opportunity to see any other areas of the US?
Chicago in March was friendly, bright, cold, breezy and colourful. We had a pretty packed schedule so there wasn’t a lot of sight-seeing but I relished my Sunday visit to Millennium Park, photographing the warped world view in the shiny monument The Bean, and cycling down Lakeshore Drive where the icy water was bluer than anything I’d seen before.

If you could tell your younger self one-thing what would that be?
It’s OK to be yourself. Don’t copy your neighbour!

Who is your favourite poet?
I agree with John Hegley who says it’s not about having a favourite poet but finding favourite poems. I’m a fan of the Writer’s Almanac as a way of discovering new favourite poems. I get the daily email and love listening to Garrison Keillor reading poems on their podcast.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

What was the last book you read?
I’m reading Kenneth White’s Across the Territories: Travels from Orkney to Rangiroa at the moment. He writes about lots of places including Andalucia where I’m about to go on holiday – and Orkney where I went in my capacity as touring Stage Manager with The Man Who Planted Trees for the first time right at the end of the Chicago exchange.

One of my challenges at the moment is how to keep the spark alive in my own writing when I’m away from home a lot without much routine.
Kenneth White knows how to find inspiration all over the place, so I’m lapping it up.

Do you have a website, blog, facebook, twitters that our readers can keep up with what you are doing?
My own website is woefully un-updated at the moment but is a good record of what I’ve done in the past. www.elspethmurray.com

I enjoy being part of a community of writers and artists connected through the magic of facebook. www.facebook.com/ElspethMurray

And for confessions of a Twitter addict, you can follow my musings and meanderings here: http://twitter.com/ElspethMurray

Finally, I have been inspired – by the Scottish Book Trust and the Chicago Exchange – to set up a blog to collect ideas, resources, experiences from the teaching artist part of my life:
http://elspethmurray.wordpress.com/